remanufactured master cylinders any good?

In my experience: Hell no.

Bullshit. The trained monkeys at the "remanufacturing" plants, and the slightly better-trained monkeys who boss them, are about 1/2 to 3/4 of a notch above McBurger flippers on the mental capacity scale, and are in no position to be second-guessing actual engineers. The "design flaws" thing is somebody's attempt to spin the fact that the reman places can only make decent money by consolidating their product line to the maximum possible extent. That winds you up with terrific odds of getting a part that pretty much fits and kinda works almost like the original one and might last maybe a couple of years.

Is that good enough for your brakes? If your answer is "Yes", stay the hell off the roads I drive. My answer is "No".

For the same reasons.

DS

IMHO if you trust your skills enough to rebuild it yourself you're better off doing that. If not, I'd look for a new one. It's pretty hard to screw up a master cylinder, but I share your opinion of rebuilt alternators, and I imagine that the brake guys have similar quality control unfortunately...

nate

4 out of the last 5 'remanufactured' brake masters I have gotten were bad...

At least I spotted 2 of them leaking during the bench bleed, the other 2 just wouldn't pump once in.

I gave up and went new.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Dave wrote:

| |Bullshit. The trained monkeys at the "remanufacturing" plants, and the |slightly better-trained monkeys who boss them, are about 1/2 to 3/4 of a |notch above McBurger flippers on the mental capacity scale, and are in no |position to be second-guessing actual engineers. The "design flaws" thing |is somebody's attempt to spin the fact that the reman places can only make |decent money by consolidating their product line to the maximum possible |extent. That winds you up with terrific odds of getting a part that pretty |much fits and kinda works almost like the original one and might last |maybe a couple of years.

I'll argue that. Delco alternator remans, and new replacements are made to spec by a company we know as Worldwide. The specs are dated by a couple years. Current Worldwide replacements are improved designs in very small, but significant areas. And true, they can consolidate more than the OE.

Rex in Fort Worth

|I need to replace my brake master cylinder and was wondering if remanufactured |ones are worth it. I've been told that remanufactured ones can in some cases be |better than new ones because "design flaws" are fixed. I've read about a lot of |problems with remanufactured alternators, but since master cylinders are more |mechanical, I'm hoping that there will be less problems. Is there a particular

|brand that I should look for or avoid?

In 1999 I build a 1985 Mazda RX7 to SCCA road racing rules. At that time I replaced the original with a reman unit from A-1 Cardone, who makes practically all the US aftermarket units today. Cardone is a first-class, family-owned company that is committed to quality, and their products reflect that. I would also note that hundreds of SCCA and NASA race cars are running Cardone reman calipers. That Cardone MC is still on the car after 4 seasons of 115 mph braking. Last year I ordered a new MC from Mazda, thinking the reman was finally failing. It wasn't, and I still have the Mazda unit as a spare. (in fact, I forgot I had it until last Sunday).

Your mileage may vary, but I wouldn't be afraid of a Cardone reman. Rex in Fort Worth

Thanks everyone for the reply. I have another question, but will start another thread.

Thanks,

- Dave

Dave wrote:

Generally speaking, no. I went through several once then ended up going new. I've had good luck with remanufactured brake calipers though. I usually buy new brake pistons for drum brakes, as they are usually cheap enough.